


to cross that line

by akanemnida



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Future Fic, M/M, Mutual Attraction, PD101 boys make an appearance, Pining, Post-W1 disbandment, Pre-Relationship, Roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-01-28 12:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12606512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akanemnida/pseuds/akanemnida
Summary: Though there had always been that spark, that undeniable chemistry between the two of them, exploring it had never been a priority as they had been too focused on surviving. They were each other's best friends: nothing more, nothing less.And then life decides that they should become roommates. Suddenly, feelings are a lot harder to ignore.(Or: the fic in which Minki doesn't give Minhyun his room back. Minhyun likes touching Dongho. Dongho thinks Minhyun is handsome. Chaos ensues.)





	1. 01 - minhyunnie

**Author's Note:**

> I got sad (and frustrated) that the Baekmin tag had barely any fanfiction so I decided to try my hand at writing one of my own. Maybe this way people can stop sleeping on the craziest Nu'est pair. 
> 
> It's been a while since I've written for anything, so I'm still trying to figure out my writing style and it might change as this story goes on! I kinda have ideas of how I want this fic to go, but I feel like this story has been writing itself so far and that my ideas are being ignored by my typing fingers, heh. I actually have a bulk of this written, so updates should be semi-fast. The rest isn't ready for upload/are way too far into my timeline so posting them wouldn't make sense. I'm also prioritizing keeping them in character and that's been really tough so far.
> 
> Anyway! I hope this fic is as enjoyable for you to read as it is for me to write!

Minhyun wants to say that he’s shocked, but the truth is he really isn’t surprised when Minki decides to kick him out of what was once his room.

“I’m not giving you your room back, and the lease to this apartment ends when our Pledis contract ends in March, anyway,” Minki says, a little too nonchalantly. Minhyun feels his eye twitch. “The CEO says we’ll move to a five-bedroom apartment once the lease expires and if we all re-sign with Pledis. Which is what’s happening anyway, so it’ll only be for three months!”

Minki had always been fiercely independent, and having had tasted freedom from JR’s nagging and constant late-night game sessions for the past year and a half – really, Minhyun _understands_ where Minki was coming from. Frankly, he doesn’t care, and rooming with any one of his members for three months sounds infinitely better than staying in the five-membered room in the Wanna One dorms.

(He loved his Wanna One roommates to death, will miss them dearly, will cry endlessly when he inevitably has to move out. But he honestly almost went insane because of Jaehwan’s inability to clean up, Jihoon and Woojin’s constant need to give in to their violent tendencies, and Guanlin… Guanlin was fine. Guanlin was a good roommate.)

 “You can room with Jonghyun,” Minki says over the phone. “Jonghyun wouldn’t care. Or Dongho, probably, but you wouldn’t like that.”

“I’ll think about it. You’re awful. That was my room.”

It crosses his mind how how funny this whole situation is – as it stands now, he’s one of the top-earning idols in South Korea, one of Pledis’ greatest assets, and all that power goes to shit when it comes to dealing with his teammates for the past nine years. It’s even funnier when he realizes that he _likes_ that fact.

“It’s been my room longer than it was yours!” Minki retorts. Minhyun realizes he can’t argue with that; they had only recently moved to the four-bedroom apartment before Produce 101. “And whatever. You love me anyway.” He swears he could hear Minki stick out his tongue as he hangs up the phone. Minhyun really misses him.

The thing is, he doesn’t _want_ to room with Jonghyun. He knew of the leader’s hectic schedules, how his life constantly moved from one variety show to another, to dance practice, to their group schedules and fansigns. Minhyun knew of Jonghyun’s tendency to overwork himself to the point of exhaustion, and not interfering in Jonghyun’s solo room honestly seems like the biggest favor he can do for his leader. Aron- _hyung_ wasn’t an option either: even if Aron had been his roommate during the holidays they shared together in his home in Busan, even if Aron would probably be the best choice of a roommate because of their closeness, their similar personalities and their synchronized sleep-wake schedules, Minhyun respected the fact that Aron was a _hyung_ , and that _hyungs_ really deserve the nicest things in the apartment. Aron wouldn’t mind – “I’m American, there’s no such thing as _hyung_ - _dongsaeng_ in America, Minhyun-ah.” --  Minhyun would _._

So he calls Baekho. All things considered, he’s not the most _ideal_ roommate, but he’s the only one left, and though he can think of a million and one reasons why he doesn’t want to room with Baekho (there’s a reason why they stopped being roommates in the first place), the reasons why he didn’t want to room with Jonghyun and Aron seem greater in terms of importance.

(At least, this is what he tells himself as he waits for Baekho to pick up, but these are the thoughts at the back of his mind:

First, he misses his best friend.

Second, he misses the giant bear hugs and the fact that Baekho somehow manages to listen to him when he ends up talking all night long.

Third, he misses the sarcasm and the realism, the late-night drives to Busan, the impromptu duets, nights spent in Baekho’s room studying music composition, how peaceful Baekho looks at seven in the morning when he’s dead to the world and Minhyun is already wide awake and he gets to appreciate how --)

“Hwang Minhyun?”

“Dongho-ya, let me use your room.”

“Wait, what?”

“Minki kicked me out and I don’t want to ask Jonghyun or Aron- _hyung_ ,” Minhyun explains. “Jonghyun is too busy… Aron- _hyung_ is… Aron is a _hyung_.” Dongho will understand, he knows this. He also predicts that Dongho will respond sarcastically.

“Yah, and you feel like you can ask me for a space in my room?”

“Yes.” He’ll get what he wants in _3… 2…_

Dongho bursts into laughter. Minhyun thinks that it sounds nice. “Eh. Okay. Honestly, I figured you’d ask after Minki decided to snake you, so I tried to clean up. It probably won’t meet your standards but whatever. See you next week.”

“Kang Dongho, I love you!” Minhyun exclaims as he hangs up. It occurs to him that his best friend did not just understand – Dongho was a full step ahead of him, ready to accommodate him at a moment’s notice. He is reminded that beyond his strong man image, beyond all the damn walls Dongho built around his heart, despite the year and a half they spent apart, Kang Dongho will _always_ have a soft spot for Hwang Minhyun.

Minhyun finds it hard to stop smiling for the rest of that afternoon.

 

* * *

 

Minhyun comes back to the Nu’est dorms exactly a week after Wanna One disbands. Nothing much had changed since the last time he visited: shoes were strewn near the front door, dirty dishes were left in the sink, and clothes – was that his sweater? – were lying around everywhere. He feels a strong urge to drop everything and _clean_ , but then Aron and Minki suddenly have him in an embrace, JR is welcoming him back, and Dongho is cheering unenthusiastically in the background. Minhyun somehow catches Dongho’s eye and shoots him a glare; the shorter man waves back sheepishly, a gigantic smile blooming on his face. Minhyun finds himself overcome with the urge to hug Dongho. He supposes that can wait until later.

“Guys, this house is a _mess_ ,” Minhyun says. “Minki stole my room, and I come home to a dirty house. I thought you guys loved me?”

“I mean, you were coming home anyway, so we didn’t bother cleaning up,” Dongho started, earning a glare from JR. “What? It’s the truth. We were all thinking the same way.”

“At least Jonghyunnie, Minki and Aron-hyung have the decency to look ashamed… you… you’re so--!”

Dongho shrugs. “It’s a good thing you miss me—”

“Yah, when did I ever say that?”

“We’re so ashamed, Minhyunnie~ so we bought _galbi jjim_ from that place you liked!” Minki piped up, seemingly sensing that it was his time to intervene or else the two would go on forever. “And Aron-hyung will cook that pasta you like so much!”

“Did you just volunteer me to cook, Minki?"

“Would you rather I cook for Minhyun?” Minki responds dryly, glaring pointedly at the older man. Beside Minki, JR is laughing silently, eyes shining with mirth.

Minhyun blinks once, twice. He should be feeling irritated, but instead relief floods through his veins, his heart feels like it’s filled with an overwhelming warmth. He was afraid that coming home would mean distance, would mean contrived conversations and awkward silences, that it would mean he’d be treated like a stranger. He’s never been so glad to be wrong. A year and a half and not much had changed.

“Yeah, I do miss you, Baekho. I missed all of you. Let’s eat,” Minhyun says, as he drapes himself around Dongho’s shoulders, letting himself be dragged by the shorter boy to the dining area.

(He chooses to keep this to himself: he’d really missed the boys, but he also misses _this_ , the feeling of wrapping his long arms around Dongho’s wide frame, the familiar smell of musk cologne mixing with his favorite aftershave when he buries his face in Dongho’s neck; he’s missed the goosebumps he _knows_ he can elicit from Dongho’s skin if he breathes at that junction between his neck and his shoulder; he relishes in the fact that Dongho is sturdy enough, is strong enough, is _there_ to support him in every sense of the word.)


	2. 02 - dongho-ssi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He couldn't help that he was messy, or sarcastic, or too truthful, just as how Minhyun couldn't help that he'd been gone.
> 
> Or: Dongho begins to realize that this arrangement may lead to more than just sharing a room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight delay because I had the flu for the past three days, but here I am now, ready to water the Baekmin tag with my small offering... Please enjoy :)

“You know,” Minhyun begins lowly. “I don’t know if I remember it right, or if I was hearing things, but I remember hearing you saying that you cleaned up.”

Dongho looks around his room, sees the flannel shirts littered everywhere, his laptop on his queen-sized bed along with a pair of headphones and stray music sheets, the laundry basket that was threatening to overflow. He blinks, not really seeing what was wrong.

“It looks normal, though?” He turns his head, and sees Minhyun, as handsome as ever and _oh,_ he knows that grin, it’s that fake, forced smile that Minhyun wears when he’s about to tell someone off—

“Baekho- _ssi_ ,” Minhyun says, leaning down and picking the shirts that were on the ground. Oh, he _hated_ it when Minhyun switched from informal to formal language, because suddenly his heart was hammering in his chest and he didn’t know _why_. One, two, three… he watches as Minhyun stuffs shorts in the laundry basket. Okay, maybe his room cleanliness situation wasn’t normal. “Kang Dongho- _ssi_.”

“What?”

“How did you _ever_ live without me?”

“Not that well, honestly,” Baekho says seriously, looking pointedly at Minhyun’s direction. “I mean, it was okay, but—”

Minhyun’s eyes widen as he picks up the last of the stray shirts. “I mean -- go on, I’m sorry, I was expecting sarcasm, not a heart-to-heart conversation?”

“I did miss you, you know. I… the other three, they’re great. Bumzu- _hyung_ , he’s great. He’s my favorite. But I still missed you.”

Dongho looks away when he sees that Minhyun’s face had turned red.

“I forget how honest you can be sometimes,” Minhyun muses, sitting on Dongho’s bed, collecting the music sheets and glancing at them quickly.

“Is this a new song?” he asks, grinning widely. “Dude, you wrote this for me, didn’t you? You can’t reach these high notes in your dreams. Jonghyun probably can.” Minhyun is laughing at his own joke.

Dongho realizes that it’s been _forever_ since he’s last had a giggly Minhyun on his bed. Before they went on Produce 101, Minhyun had been an almost-permanent fixture in his room as they used to spend countless hours alternating between listening to music and writing songs. Then they had to do the program, and then they had to deal with the whirlwind that came after the program.

They’d lost so much time.

“Jonghyun _can’t._ Seungkwan or Seokmin probably can,” he deflects lamely. Minhyun called him honest moments ago, maybe he’d be able to get away with a well-timed lie. The song _was_ for Minhyun, who sticks his tongue out at him.

“Nope. This is mine. It’s mine now.”

“You little shit, you’re taking my song and half my room?”

“Yep.” Minhyun makes sure to pop the ‘p’ sound.

Dongho wants to kill him, or hug him. Maybe both. Dongho also wants to cover Minhyun’s face like he used to do, and tell him to stop smiling, that smile was as dangerous as it was adorable. The other boy is so _pretty_ and just looks right in his room, having Minhyun around _feels_ right, and suddenly he feels an overwhelming gratefulness to the gods above that Minhyun decided not to share a room with Jonghyun.

“And I’m always honest, though?” Dongho replies slowly, carefully. He’s honest, he knows that it’s charming that he lacks a brain-to-mouth filter, but that last train of thought would probably be best kept to himself for now. “The other boys took care of me, while you were gone.”

Minhyun laughs, his eyes turning into small crescents as he falls back against Dongho’s pillows. He’s cute, and Dongho wants to punch something. “You’re a big baby, you know that?”

“I mean, it’s not my fault that shit happened in my life and my best friend _left me_ , Hwang Minhyun,” Dongho says, moving his laptop aside so he could lie down beside the taller boy.

“Yah, look at me.” The atmosphere was suddenly heavy, and he realizes, _oh_ _no_ , he said something stupid again. 

“I was joking,” Dongho says quickly, his hazel eyes looking directly into Minhyun’s dark ones. “I know you’d never leave me on purpose.”

Minhyun screws his eyes shut to avoid his gaze. Dongho looks down, notices the eyebags, the stubborn dark circles that refused to leave his best friend’s face. “I mean, I technically did. Leave you. Especially when, you know, everything shitty happened to you all at once.”

“I’m not mad, though?” Dongho answers. “Why would I be?”

Minhyun opens his eyes. “I mean, I’m supposed to be your best friend, and I was off in another world having the time of my life with ten other boys and I feel like shit when I remember that I wasn’t around when your dad died and when you got into that scandal.” Honestly, Dongho hates this type of serious talk, hates it when Minhyun is sad, hates it most when Minhyun is sad _because_ of him.

“Minhyun- _ssi_ ,” Dongho says, deadpan, as he reaches for the other boy’s hand. “I have four other best friends.”

Dongho watches Minhyun’s reaction, as his face goes from apologetic, to wide-eyed, to shocked, to sheer, outright, obnoxious laughter. Minhyun’s laughing again, and Dongho feels like his world has been put upright. He shoots Minhyun a smile and squeezes the hand that was entwined with his. “I’m okay. I’m okay right now, I promise.”

“You’re so annoying, _roommate_.” Minhyun stretches his arms, inviting Dongho into an embrace. It’s tempting, and it’s been a while. He sees no reason to resist, so he crawls into Minhyun’s arms. “You are _stuck with me_ ,” he says as annoyingly as possible.

“This is my room. You can room with Jonghyun if I’m so annoying,” Dongho mumbles, as he buries his face in Minhyun’s neck. “Go. Go now. Get out, faster,” he says, not even pretending to escape Minhyun’s grip.

“Then why the hell did you accept my hug?” He could hear the smirk in Minhyun’s voice. He wants to smother that smirk, preferably with a pillow or maybe with—

He suppresses _that_ urge with a knock on Minhyun’s forehead.

“Ouch!”

“Shut the _fuck up,_ Minhyun. I don’t know why I agreed to this. Get your room back from Minki for all I care.”

The tips of Dongho’s ears feel warm. They’re probably red.

He hopes the other boy doesn’t notice, but at the same time, a small part of him hopes that Minhyun does.

 


	3. 03 - expectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good friends try their very best to make their friends feel better.
> 
> (Or: Minhyun is a really good friend, and gets more than what he asks for.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing these two is a STRUGGLE but I will bear this struggle if it means watering the Baekmin tag... Enjoy... I guess...

Minhyun wakes up the next morning due to a combination of sunlight, the sound of soft snores, and an unfamiliar weight – an unfamiliar _warmth_ – wrapped around his torso. He opens his eyes and attempts to focus on his surroundings. It takes him only a second until he remembers the situation he’s in.

He was no longer in the Wanna One dorms, no longer in that narrow twin-sized bunk bed that YMC for some reason insisted they stay in. He no longer had to wake up four overgrown children, no longer had to rush to the shower first thing or else he’d have to wait for 10 people before he got the chance. He was here now, in the Nu’est dorms, in Dongho’s oversized bed, trapped because of Dongho’s vice-like grip around his waist.

He shifts Dongho’s arms around, such that they didn’t have him in a death grip, and moves to face the other man.

When he had said he wanted to share a room with Dongho, he had _expected_ that he would move his twin-sized mattress into his best friend’s room. He _expected_ that Dongho’s room would be messy, Minhyun’s strong urge to clean would cause him to tidy up, and they would live a mutually beneficial relationship in which Minhyun gets a space to sleep while Dongho gets a friend to do his chores. Really, that was all he wanted out of this situation.

What he did _not_ expect was that Dongho had decided to upgrade his bed into a queen-sized bed, and second, that he had managed to amass many strange fangifts and trinkets that took up an entire section of his bedroom. There simply was no space for another bed.

What he _should have_ expected was the fact that rooming with Kang Dongho meant that Dongho’s sleeping figure would be the first thing he’d see every damn morning, even before he could gather his wits, form coherent thoughts, and deny unwanted feelings. What he did _not_ expect was how difficult it is to look away at his sleeping best friend’s form – the peacefulness all over his masculine face, the strong arms that were currently restricting him from moving, the tattoo that threatened to peek out from under the deep-V of his pajama shirt –

He is overcome with the strong urge to _touch_.

At the very least, Minhyun _had_ expected Dongho’s loud grunt when he rapidly shoots out of their bed.

7AM was the perfect time to start the day, he rationalizes, as he watches Dongho roll over in his sleep.

 

* * *

 

Aside from the fact that they share a bed and that there was a lot of questionable touching going on while they were asleep (it’s not like they could control themselves while unconscious), nothing much changes, because there was no time for anything to change.

They prepare for their first comeback as five, their first comeback as a full group in three full years, and Minhyun is filled with a deep anxiety that he hadn’t felt while he was in Wanna One.

He knew Wanna One was built to succeed. He knew that he just had to keep doing his best, to give his utmost effort, and the fans and the sales would come. It was the nature of the project group, after all – to create a massively popular unit that would attract people no matter what. In Wanna One, he had been able to let go and enjoy the ride.

This current comeback with Nu’est, on the other hand, had _failure potential_ written over it. The entire South Korea was extremely hyped for this comeback – how much _bigger_ would Nu’est get now that they’re finally complete, would the quality of music match the previous standards set by Nu’est, will Nu’est be able to beat Nu’est-W in first week sales?

And the most important question: would Minhyun’s return lead Nu’est to bigger heights?

Nu’est-W was a damn big success. This was a fact Minhyun was extremely proud of. But was _Minhyun_ – Nu’est’s Minhyun – even necessary to the group success? Would his existence lead to net positive gains for the group? Was the group better off without him?

Minhyun is just _so damn stressed_ over this comeback.

But he realizes, at 2AM, when he reaches for his phone to check the time and sees a single text from Kang Dongho – _minhyunnie, i’ll be home late;_ when he reaches his arm to the other side of the bed and feels no one there, he thinks that there may be one more person who was more stressed about this whole situation than he is.

He falls back into a deep sleep, and wakes up hours later to Dongho’s soft snores.

 

* * *

 

He’s resting in a corner in the dance studio when Jonghyun comes to sit beside him.

“Minhyunnie, are you alright?”

Minhyun sees no reason to hide anything from JR, so he responds. “I’m just worried that I’ll just be bringing the group down, that the fans wouldn’t end up liking this comeback because it sounds so different from the sound you’ve established, that all the fans I had from Wanna One won’t be here for me now that I’m—”

“Don’t worry about that,” Jonghyun answers simply. “The fans always pull through. LOVEs have done so many amazing things for the four of us while you were gone. Anyway, what the fans do is out of our control.”

Minhyun nods in response, feeling slightly better but not completely at ease. “I… guess so. I guess seeing it with my eyes and actually being _there_ would feel completely different.”

“Obviously. Anyway, worry about him instead.”

JR points to Dongho, who had fallen asleep in one of the chairs of the practice room. His arms were folded across his chest, his head was leaning back against one of the mirrors, and his mouth was open wide. Minhyun laughs.

“What’s up with him?”

“I’m… not sure if you’ve noticed, because you fall asleep early… but he comes home late, then works until around 4, 5 AM… just sitting in front of his laptop and perfecting our songs.”

He had noticed. “So what should I do?”

“I’m not sure, really… you’re his roommate. Get his mind off things. Get him to breathe. Get him to _sleep_. Remind him that it’s okay to stop working once in a while.”

Minhyun frowns. “You know how anal he gets about his songs, though. He’s not going to stop because I tell him to.”

“I’ve heard the songs Minhyun. We’ve all heard the songs. We’re already _dancing_ to the songs. They’re perfect as they are. Dongho’s probably just going insane in the middle of the night, I doubt he actually spends too much time tweaking things.”

“You’re probably right.”

 

* * *

 

The problem with JR’s instructions was that they were hilariously vague. Get his best friend’s mind off things – _how_ exactly was Minhyun supposed to do that?

So he does the only thing he could think of doing – he talks to him. They were in their room; Minhyun on the bed reading a book, Dongho at his desk, fiddling with his production software while simultaneously watching food videos on Naver. (Minhyun knows that it isn’t simultaneous at all, and that Dongho’s focus had already chosen the food videos).

“Yah, Kang Dongho, you look stressed.”

Dongho looks up from his laptop, a sheepish smile on his face. “Yeah, because I am.”

“Sleep.”

“Are the lights bothering you? I can probably work outside if you want…”

“I’m reading. It’s not bothering me. You need to _rest_.”

His best friend ignores him and moves his head from side to side, while his hand reaches up to the back of his neck to massage it. “Agh, I could probably go to the spa right now… or something like that.”

“I can give you a massage,” Minhyun says. “But in exchange you have to sleep. At a normal hour. Like a normal human being.”

“What.”

“If you’d like. If you want me to.”

(Inner Minhyun hopes that Dongho wants to. Inner Minhyun has been suppressing the urge to touch for _days_.)

“I… Are you sure you don’t want me to turn off the lights so you can sleep?”

 

* * *

 

(“JR told me to get you to relax. So I’m doing it.”

“Since when did you listen to what Jonghyun says?”

“Since _always_ , in case you haven’t noticed, now shut up.”)

 

* * *

 

 

Minhyun had always been a very auditory person, which was why he’d loved singing and talking and listening (and listening to himself talk). He’d had a list of favorite sounds – the entire TVXQ discography, Bolbbalgan4’s Galaxy, the sound of running water splashing around the kitchen sink, Nu’est harmonies, birds chirping early in the morning, the sound of audiences yelling his name during concerts –

What he did _not_ expect was to add more sounds to his list of favorites.

He had stood up from his bed, marched over to where Dongho was slouched over his computer screen (“Dongho, _stop slouching._ ” “Minhyun, _stop nagging_.”) and promptly put his hands on his best friend’s shoulders.

Dongho had given up and had rested his head on his desk, allowing his best friend’s fingers to do the work. It wasn’t the first time he had done something like this – nine years of friendship, nine years of idol life, meant nine years of body pain – so nothing about kneading the knots off his roommate’s tense shoulders felt wrong.

What felt _wrong_ was that he found himself collecting all of the little sounds Dongho made – the low moans, the small grunts, the tiny laugh when Minhyun got a little too close to the sensitive, ticklish spot on Dongho’s neck. What he found _wrong_ was that he found himself relishing in every new sound he was able to get from his best friend, repeating motions that got the best responses; he thinks he can probably stay here for hours and make Dongho feel good if he was going to get rewarded with so many pretty _noises_ –

Dongho had always had one of the prettiest voices in the _world_.

So when Dongho decides to shrug his hands off – “Min, I feel better now, thanks,” he says, his wide grin finally reaching his light brown eyes – Minhyun feels a sense of _relief_ because there was a warmth pooling in his stomach that he didn’t know how to deal with.  

Minhyun smiles at him weakly. “You’re welcome.”

“Okay, let’s go to bed,” Dongho says, eyes sparkling. “Do you want to be the big spoon tonight, too?”

Well. He did _not_ expect that.

Minhyun nearly chokes.


	4. 04 - ramyeon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyun is a noisy drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this chapter took a lot longer than it should have because I had schoolwork but mostly because I am not good with writing with a timeframe, haha.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! Let's get the ball rolling on the romance on this one... Have some fluff before the storm... Heh.

Minhyun gets drunk on the night of Daehwi’s 19th birthday party.

Daehwi had thrown a house party in his apartment that was much too large for a 19 year-old, complete with an open bar, a DJ, and all his closest friends.

(“I bought this as an investment so that I wouldn’t end up spending all my Wanna One money on stupid things, hyung,” he had said brightly, and Dongho stared at the kid in awe. Sometimes he forgets how mature the younger one really is.

“Booze is a really dumb thing to blow money on, Daehwi-ah.”

“I get to see all of you shitfaced, so it’s an investment too!”)

Dongho noticed that while Minhyun had rejected every single can of beer that was offered his way, he had been downing all the soju shots that an inebriated Daniel and Jaehwan had thrust upon his friend’s hands. Heck, even Jihoon, Woojin, and Jinyoung were giving Minhyun shots. It was almost as if Wanna One had been conspiring to get Minhyun drunk.

Though he knew Minhyun didn’t drink from before his Wanna One days, maybe spending too much time with alcohol enthusiasts like Daniel had changed his tolerance, so he made no move to stop Minhyun from drinking. Though he had known pretty much everything about Minhyun before he became a Wanna One member, Dongho admits that he still doesn’t know what had changed in his best friend in the past year and a half.

As it turns out, he was wrong ( _I’m usually wrong when it comes to this prediction intuition things,_ he realizes.) Minhyun’s alcohol tolerance hadn’t changed at all, and a very drunk Minhyun ended up plastering himself all over a very sober Dongho.

This was going to be a long night.

Minhyun, already extremely tactile when sober, turns into something like a skinship _monster_ when he’s had a bit to drink. They’re sitting on one of the couches, Dongho leaning against the backrest and Minhyun resting his head on his shoulder. His hands are everywhere, on his arms, then on his shoulders, then on his leg, and why is his hand there of all places –

“Hwang Minhyun!”

Minhyun looks up at him with sleepy eyes, and that’s when Dongho realizes he’ll be fucked if he’s not careful. Fucked _only_ in a completely figurative sense. “Huh? Oh.” He moves his hand back to Dongho’s arm. The shorter man lets out a sigh of relief.

“Why did you drink so much?” Dongho asks. He watches Minki dance wildly to the music, watches Daehwi get a little too close to Jinyoung, watches Jonghyun and Youngmin catch up with each other in a corner. “You know you can’t drink.”

“I didn’t even drink _much_ ,” Minhyun corrects. “I just can’t drink.”

“Don’t be a smartass, you know one shot can kill you and you had like. Ten.”

“Ugh, probably… fifteen,” Minhyun says, burying his face in Dongho’s shoulder. “Please stop nagging.”

Dongho chuckles and shifts so that the taller boy could get comfortable. “Okay, okay.”

“Why didn’t you stop me? I feel like shit.” He could feel Minhyun’s words against his skin. Dongho tells himself to focus on his friend’s half-dead state instead. “I can’t move. You know I can’t drink.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, it’s your job to take care of me.” Minhyun glares at him in response. “Besides, it’s been a year and a half… I thought maybe Daniel taught you to drink?”

Minhyun groans. “You’re stupid. I still… ugh.” Dongho looks into his friend’s dark eyes, waiting for him to continue. “I drank cause I wanted to have a good time with them and because the grapefruit soju tasted decent and because I miss them. It backfired, okay?” Minhyun pouts and goes back to leaning against Dongho.

“Since when have you been a dumbass?”

“At least I’m not as dumb as you.”

“Not at this moment though, you’re dumber.” Dongho pokes at Minhyun’s cheek. “Dumb.”

Minhyun grabs at the hand that was on his face, and intertwines their fingers. Dongho feels his face get hot because of Minhyun’s sudden burst of affection, finds himself at a complete loss for words until he realizes that it was all probably because of the alcohol.

“Baekho-ya, let’s go home.”

Dongho couldn’t find it anywhere in him to say no.

 

* * *

 

Home, as it turns out, was _not_ where Minhyun wanted to go. Home was the last place Minhyun wanted to go, as the moment they stepped out of Daehwi’s apartment, Minhyun had started rambling: how he wanted to go to Busan, and how he wanted to go to Lotte World, and how he wanted to eat some ramyeon with cheese. For the second time in an hour, Dongho calmly accepts that this was going to be a long night.

He manages – with great difficulty, because Minhyun is a leech when sober and even worse when drunk – to get Minhyun into the passenger seat of his car. The moment he gets into the driver’s seat, he grabs his phone to send Jonghyun a text.

 

* * *

 

 _From: Kang Dongho_  
_To: Kim Jonghyun_  
  
            Left early, Minhyunnie is drunk and wants to go for a drive.

            Good luck finding a ride home

_From: Kim Jonghyun  
To: Kang Dongho_

Yikes

Who gave Minhyunnie drinks?

            Lol good luck dealing with him

            We’ll manage somehow

 

* * *

 

  
"Baekho-ya, who are you even texting,” Minhyun whines. “Let’s go. Let’s go now.”

Dongho gives him his phone. “Find a damn song and sing to it for three minutes.”

For some reason, Minhyun finds a hip-hop track and attempts to rap. Dongho wants to die on the spot, until he realizes that his main playlist _only_ had hip-hop tracks.

 

He takes his phone back and vows to sometime create a ballad playlist for Minhyun’s enjoyment.

 

* * *

 

_From: Kang Dongho  
To: Kim Jonghyun_

Everyone gave him drinks

            Seems like the world wants me to have a hard time tonight

            He’s rapping now

_From: Kim Jonghyun  
To: Kang Dongho_

You know

            If anyone can handle him at his worst

            It’s probably you

            Good luck

 

* * *

 

Dongho fastens his seatbelt and looks at Minhyun. “Okay. Decide. One place. Where do you want to go?”

“Busan!” Minhyun chirps.

Dongho wants to slam his head against the steering wheel. “Somewhere realistic.”

“It’s realistic! We’ve been to Busan before! You drove us there!”

“I’m going to kill you soon,” Dongho says, sending a half-hearted glare to Minhyun. His friend thinks it over for a good fifteen seconds, until—

“Ramyeon.”

“So you want to go home?”

“I want ramyeon,” Minhyun says slowly. “But not at home.”

Dongho understands and proceeds to start the car. “Ramyeon at the Han River?”

“Did you just read my mind?” Minhyun beams and Dongho smiles back, feeling his heart swell because he put that smile on his friend’s dumb face.

“Nope, it’s just what we used to do. Like old times,” Dongho answers.

 

* * *

 

Like old times, he says, but even he’s not sure if it’s the same.

He’s _sort of_ aware of what he feels for Minhyun: the occasional butterflies, admiration for his friend’s attractive face, the tight feeling in his chest whenever Minhyun did something cute both in and out of their shared room.

He wonders if this was how it had been in the past – somehow, feelings from two years ago seem so far away – or if something had changed.

Dongho shuts off all train of thought and drives towards the Han River.

 

* * *

 

 _Like old times_ , Dongho thinks, had been a stupid thought, and he curses his poor judgement and the drunkenness of his best friend who was supposed to have the better judgement of the two.

He’d forgotten that back then, they had been unknown enough to roam around Seoul unnoticed and that right now, the entire South Korea knew them both. He curses because tonight, they hadn’t taken any precautions: no masks, no caps, no attempts at disguise. Predictably, the convenience store clerk had recognized them, and Dongho had noticed two girls attempt to take discreet photos as Minhyun bought ramyeon and soda and yogurt.

Dongho moves to the spot beside Minhyun, who was clumsily adding boiling water to his noodles.

“People recognized us,” Dongho whispers.

Minhyun hums as he waits for his noodles to cook. “Of course. It’s okay.”

“How is it okay, manager- _hyung_ will have our heads tomorrow.”

“We’re not doing anything wrong, Dongho-ya,” Minhyun answers calmly. “It’s not like two boys from the same group buying ramyeon together will lead to dating rumors.”

Dongho blinks twice and realizes that yes, despite whatever it was he’d been thinking, whatever it was he’d been feeling, at the end of the day they _were_ just two friends buying ramyeon together in the middle of the night. “How are you smarter than me when you’re supposedly drunk?”

Dongho begins to realize another very important detail.

“Minhyun, it’s the middle of winter, we can’t eat outside like we used to.”

“Oh. Oh, you’re right. Let’s eat in your car, then.”

 

* * *

 

They eat cup ramyeon and drink yogurt quietly inside Dongho’s car, which was parked right in front of the convenience store. Dongho cringes at how boring and un-romantic the whole atmosphere had turned out to be – from a theoretical Han River date to _this_.

He doesn’t even know why he cares about the romantic-ness of it all.

Still, Dongho finds himself enjoying the peace and the comfortable, quiet companionship that Minhyun brings.

“What’s your ideal type, Baekho-ya?”

Suddenly, Dongho is reminded of the fact that Minhyun is never quiet. He finds himself caught off-guard by the random, pointless question. “What brought this on?”

“I’m tipsy, entertain me,” Minhyun says while smiling brightly, and once again, Dongho realizes that he is never able to say no to his best friend, no matter how dumb the request.

His mouth curls into a small smile. “I like those with long hair—” Dongho is not sure if he imagines Minhyun’s eyes turning dull – “Those who are rich, and those who are sexy. I’ve said this before, remember?”

Minhyun scoffs. “You’re so shallow. Tell me what personality your ideal person should have.”

“Seriously, what the hell…” Dongho narrows his eyes. “You’re not drunk, you’re just noisy.”

Minhyun ignores him. “Just do it!”

“Okay, okay! Uhm.” He closes his eyes, and starts to think. Dongho imagines a person with the biggest eyesmile, a kind, gentle person who cares for him wholeheartedly, someone who’s smart and clever enough to banter with him; he finds himself terrified when he realizes that there is a face that he can associate with these descriptions and even more terrified when he opens his eyes and sees the exact face he was thinking about.

“Someone who’s nice,” Dongho says vaguely. “Someone who’s clean.”

“When did you turn into the most boring person in the world? But nice and clean… that’s it? I qualify?”

Dongho wants to tell him that he more than just qualifies, but that would probably be too much. “You don’t have long hair though.”

“Hair is hair! I can grow my hair out.”

“Why do you care so much?” Dongho snaps, before he suddenly realizes he doesn’t want to know the answer. He’s always had that fight or flight tendency, and tonight he chooses to flee.

“You. You keep judging my type, you, who’s your type, huh?”

Minhyun chooses that moment to clean, to put the empty ramyeon cups and yogurt bottles inside a plastic bag. Dongho tries his best to deal with the uncomfortable silence, until—

“You,” Minhyun answers suddenly.

Dongho looks at him incredulously, feels his heart threaten to leap out of his chest, and he thinks that it was a good thing he’d finished his food long ago or else it’d all have spilled.

“You’re joking. It’s probably Ong or something.”

“For what it’s worth, Ong has my ideal _face_ ,” Minhyun answers. “That’s shallow. I’m not as boring as you.”

“You’re drunk. You have to be.”

Minhyun laughs, and it’s loud and irritating and Dongho wants the world to consume him whole while he attempts to figure out if what Minhyun said had been a lie or not. “Okay, then believe what you want to believe!”

Dongho feels heat flood his entire face and decides that thinking about this conversation was not worth all the mental stress.

“Let’s just go home, Minhyun-ah.”

 

* * *

 

Later that night, as Minhyun sleeps soundly beside him, Dongho realizes he can’t quite get that one word Minhyun said out of his head.

_So much for trying to help me sleep, Minhyun-ah._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos keep me motivated :D If you want to scream at me, you can find me on twitter (same username as my pseud).


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